It could be Monday before a man who was found dead on South Whittier Avenue is positively identified, Sangamon County Coroner Cinda Edwards said Saturday.

The man was found in the yard of a home in the 2700 block of South Whittier Friday morning.

Sangamon County Undersheriff Jack Campbell said the body showed signs of trauma, but the cause of death was not apparent. If the death turns out to be a homicide, it would be the first of the year in the countyís jurisdiction.

Edwards said she expects that the man would be identified through fingerprints during a Monday autopsy.

Authorities said the ethnicity of the man has yet to be determined, though police initially described him as white.